Grrl Power #812 – Specism
I didn’t plan on doing a foot shot of both my digitigrade characters in the same panel, but if you’re super into pictures like that which also happen to have a tightly bound woman in the background… I guess you’re welcome. If you’re thinking Aranea looks a few arms short, they’re wrapped up behind her.
Tamatha is obviously concerned about her genealogy. It’s tough in our society to find positive examples of demons in our media. She’s living in a state of eroding denial about her nature.
Aranea has gone in a more proactive direction. In her defense, there are some demons who are real jerks. And by jerks I mean supermurder psychopaths. It would be racist to suggest it’s because they’re demons, but some of them aren’t well socialized. Okay, they’re well socialized for certain segments of demon society, which trends towards… macho most of the time. Demons are largely more civilized these days, but there are some that cling to the old ways. Still, Aranea crossed a line nabbing Tamatha.
I wrote a book! It has nothing to do with Grrl Power. It’s actually Tamer fanfiction, but like, 120K words of it, and it’s free! It has dinosaurs, action, humor, xenoanthropology, and smexy times. Check it out here!
Edit: There is a revised edition out now with a ton of fixes.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Just wanted to say, DaveB, that those are fantastic feet you drew, and a wonderfully wriggling prisoner. No, I’m not into feet, but you drew them very well, and the perspective between their feet and Aranea is believable. Seriously well done. It’s not easy drawing feet, it’s not easy drawing foreground versus background, and you nailed it. (Maybe not as well as that club would, but pretty darn close, I’d say.)
The ability to draw hands and feet well are some of the more difficult things for artists to do well, from what I’ve seen. Case in point for the inability to draw feet – Rob Liefeld. The guy can’t draw feet to save his life, and compensates by drawing more pouches than any person would ever conceivably need in one lifetime.
DaveB, on the other hand, seems particularly gifted at being able to draw both hands and feet exceptionally well.
My guess is that it’s more like killing random German after the war because most of them were nazis…
… I’m not sure I can agree with your “most” claim. I’m not sure I could agree with it even if you limited the scope of your statement to Germans living in Germany. If I recall my German history correctly, Hitler didn’t win with a simple majority. He, in fact, lost his election. He just managed to convince the guy who won to appoint him to the position which also included ‘assumes the presidency should the president die in office’, and then, well, the president happened to die in office the next year. Over the next few years, he gave a lot of his supporters plenty of reason to regret their votes.
Of course, yes, there were a lot of Germans who were nazis. There were also a lot of Germans, like my grandfather, who fought the nazis.
That having been said, with another parsing of your sentence, I can agree with it completely. Going after Tamatha because “most demons are or will become genocidal assholes”, when in fact, most demons are different from that, would be completely like killing random Germans after the war because “most of them were nazis”.
Just for the record, it’s my impression that most demons are some variety of what Aranea would consider problematic. The two big points here are “most is not all” and what kind of problematic – for example, Tamatha’s kind of demon doesn’t want anything to do with crushing civilization and destroying all life. I’d even wager that they would be among the first sorts of demon to join in defending their food, which they want to partake of in ways that do not actually injure them. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Aranea would be cool with what they would do instead, considering how she started her complaint with ‘corruption’ and ‘temptation’.
Close but not quite right, Some Ed. Hindenurg remained President until he died in August 1933. With the Riechstag divided among a lot of parties by the election of 1932, the Nazis were the largest single party, slightly bigger than the Communists in second place, so Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor, as was normal in a Parliamenary system. Hitler was sworn in in January 1933.
Four weeks later, the Reichstag building burned down. Communist agitators were blamed and a violent anti-Communist decree was issued by the Chancellor’s office. Every known Communist was arrested, including every Communist member of the Reihstag. With the Communist seats empty, the Nazis had a majority.
When Hindeburg died in August, the Nazis rammed through an Emergency Powers act. Hit6ler used it to declare himself President and Chancelolor, and dissolve the Reichstag. 1932 was the last election for a long time.
Here endenth the lesson. It’s important to remeber how these things were done, so they can be guarded against! Your point that the Nazis never had the majorityof the German people stands, though.
Ah. So the one point I missed was that Hitler had needed his illegally-obtained Reichstag majority to make his position succeed the president. I had remembered about the Reichstag building burning down and the communists being blamed and ousted, but I didn’t remember how it related to all of that.
Still, I think most of what you took issue with was my feeling like I was going on too long of a tangent to mention even what I did.
That said, I do think it’s important to remember how these things went wrong before, so we can defend against them happening again. That said, it’s probably also important to remember that they could happen in different ways, so we must be on guard for other shenanigans as well.
Wow…
I learned a lot! thanks!
I was under the impression that Hitler had won elections due to his charisma.
Thanks for the correction.
What do governments, religions, and other socially constructed groups do?
Manipulation (do this or else) which is the opposite of Temptation (hey please make the choice to do this).
Corruption (of themselves while also showing that being corrupt and in agreement with the corrupt is the only way to get ahead) as well.
So who cares if that’s what demons do? You do it too, or do it worse, and are an enabler of others who do the same. She’s just racist.
Is it racism if she’s correct on every count other than “just because they’re demons”? Dabbler admitted to the civilization crushing and infiltration, she just insists that demons are generally more direct while devils are the corruptors.
So a more appropriate example of “someone taking a minute minority to represent the whole” would be those knuckleheads who went around killing every stingray they could find right after September 4, 2006, just because one startled stingray killed Steve Irwin.
(…which, in a morbidly ironic fashion, would have been the LAST thing Steve Irwin wanted them to do.)
Actually, most were nor Nazi’s, I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
That’s like saying most USAsians were Republican (or Democrat, or whatever party FDR belonged to)
Trump is our president, now. Most USAians must be Twits. Or Tweeters, whichever.
Was talking about during WWII
And most USAsians are twits regardless of president :P
You are an honorary USAsian.
Never denied being an idiot, butt take offense being called a USAsian (even an honourary one)
FDR was a democrat and friend to Mussolini.
In Aranea’s rant, you can replace “demons” with almost any noun and it will sound right to some people.
“Space aliens are the foul corruptors that bring temptation and ruin! They infiltrate and destroy from within, and when their numbers tip the threshold, they crush civilizations and sweep aside all life!”
That’s probably what it looked like to some species.
And civilizations often have flaws that make contact with outsiders have tragic consequences. Of course, demons might be especially prone to causing tragic consequences. I look forward to Dabbler’s response.
Possible responses:
1. Other demons are like that, but not succubi.
2. We just give people what they want.
3. We bring the gift of superior technology, but some species misuse it.
“Marshmallows are the foul corruptors that bring temptation and ruin! They infiltrate and destroy from within, and when their numbers tip the threshold, they crush civilizations and sweep aside all life!”
… neat
“THE PEOPLE WHO DECIDED BUBBLEWRAP SHOULDN’T POP ANYMORE are the foul corruptors that bring temptation and ruin! They infiltrate and destroy from within, and when their numbers tip the threshold, they crush civilizations and sweep aside all life!”
No, it only sounds right with “demons” there.
Is that gold armlet with the red gem the concubine armlet from “I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle”?
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-507
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-509
Nope! Just some random design I made.
Also, I had no idea Jeanie Bottle was still around. Haven’t read it in years.
oh my a “well” that long is never a good sign
If your well is long enough, your village never need fear drought. ;) Remember that.
(Of course, it may need to fear other things.)
I think you mean “deep enough.” If you have a means for obtaining water where the main dimension is length, what you have is a watering trough. In which case, you village never need fear not having a place to lead their horses, though it may need to fear an inability to make them drink. :-)
“If your well is deep enough it will reach the cave layer and call forth hundreds of giant irate flame spiders.”
At least I think that’s how the saying goes.
It’s certainly the lesson I’ve been raised on.*
*lying but headcanon accepted
Deep is just long sideways.
Plus a trough has more exposed surface area so it has a higher rate of evaporation.
Good book dude! It’s a great fan fic. Same writing style, didn’t introduce new lore which then has to be proven/disproven, and it’s an excellent skill for an earthling. Could have used some back story on the prison and why he is such a good dude even though he is in prison… But maybe that’s for book two ;) keep it up! Excited to read number two!
tbh English is not my first language, so i do miss something from time to time
Like any other species, most demons will be normal folks, a few (very few, but at least a couple) will end up being saints, and a few will be complete monsters born and raised. All that changes are the ratio of good to bad, and a few base instincts that can easily be kept in line by sane society.
Name a single ‘sane’ society (and then define ‘sane’)
Only the insane have strength enough to prosper;
only those that prosper truly judge what is sane.
Sane is always a relative concept. “Civilized” is an alternate term, but just as subjective. I’d postulate that for this case, a society is “sane” if it is, in fact, capable of keeping in line the baser instincts that would lead to the sorts of behavior Aranea is probably against. You know, wanton violence, murder, soul-stealing, etc. Under that framework, most modern societies and many ancient ones can be considered “sane”, even if the methods employed to achieve such control differs radically different between them.
“Sane” is basically being mentally well-adapted to function alone and in relation to others in a way that is not harmful. For instance, suicidal urges are counter-survival even if you’re trapped on a deserted island. Paranoia’s probably less of a problem if you live in East Germany in the 1950s (one in three people being paid informants for the secret police, feeling like everyone is out to get you isn’t exactly unhealthy) than if you live in a 1960s commune (unless it’s Charles Manson’s).
“Civilized” is generally being well-adapted to social norms (if applied to a person or persons) or having a set of social norms (if a society). It’s often a false distinction, too: even the most “primitive” societies have social norms, but a “more civilized” society might not see them as such.
So, for instance, a sociopath can be “civilized,” good at conforming to social norms and keeping up appearances, but not “sane,” because their behaviors are a thin veneer covering a complete willingness to, for instance, kill people and bury them in the crawlspace under their house (ala John Wayne Gacy — the real-life scary clown). Conversely, a mountain man or an otaku (or a mountain otaku) could be seen as “sane” because their behavior is well-adapted to live without harming themselves or others, but not “civilized,” because they have either an adversarial or just plain non-intersecting relationship with societal norms.
Thank you for defining both :D
Specially the ‘sociopath’ part (most people don’t understand the difference between a ‘socio’ and a ‘psycho’ path, and then proceed to get run over on a cyclepath :P)
All cyclists are either sociopsychopaths, or are learning from their parents/guardians. Here in the western part of Oz, you do not at any time need any form of licence or certificate to ride your self-harm machine on a public road. The “at any time” includes 6-yo riding to school… without supervision. But you can be pulled over for a B/A test.
Don’t get me started on MAMILs :[
We have a (semi-)regular commentator who may or may not agree with you :D
Is that because the 6-yo is a danger on the footpath? Or because they are a 6-yo?
Because it’s a 6-yo. And the true demons in our society. Some of whom are cyclists.
Just as when society is well and truly uncivilized and insane, and you aren’t, you’re insane.
Sociopaths very often rise to the top- “hard decisions” for them aren’t difficult at all.
How many people on Wall Street or CEOs do you think have emotional existences?
Just what I’d expect a demon to say.
Technically (which is all that counts), Pixel is digitigrade, Dabbler is unguligrade.
Unless demon hooves are made of toe bones instead of toenails.
Good point – presumptions about anatomical phylogeny in demons are pretty presumptuous…
Ooh, very educational.
To complete the set, since you seem to be enjoying this, humans and bears are plantigrade.
Hopefully this is a case where a lot of places are very wild west/3rd world country and demons tend to revert to their base instincts, but Earth and the TC have managed to build a culture/civilization that keeps the worst out and infrastructure to control themselves. I mean, can you imagine how Tamatha would be able to get what she needs from night clubs in places like Star Wars Tattonie? Or demons would control mobsters like Jabba in a place like that?
Not only may Dabbler have specialised knowledge and/or skills related to interrogation, she was already used in such context at least once. Granted, she doesn’t look like using them now.
Eh, there are humans who keep people locked in their basements and make furniture out of people. And other, worse people, invent mortgage backed securities and run televangelist crap.
Its hard to make a race of demons that are worse than we are without handwaving ‘made of absolute evil’ in somewhere.
That’s easy, let’s assume for example that a higher percentage, if not entire specific species of demons, are being born with Antisocial personality disorder (sociopaths/psychopaths).
Most people are actually very helpful to their communities and those around them. Most are Sociopaths are not.
Yes, greedy vanilla selfish, or straight narcissistic/sociopathic/… humans, and their enablers, are pretty horrible, but it could definitely be much much worse.
Let’s not get too pessimistic about humans, some are shit, but most aren’t.
Most humans are selfish, self-centered, and morally empty. They are simply shaped by their environment, for better or worse. Few are those who defy their environment and stand for something.
That’s just not true, and there are tons of psychological research to back that up. You can literally just search it and find huge amounts of large research from credible sources on this topic.
Well then you won’t mind showing links to that research so that we can examine the methodology.
2 that came to mind:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160915085719.htm
vs
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917111612.htm
And neither one even addresses my position. It’s not that they agree or disagree with it, they’re orthogonal. They’re irrelevant. They’re not attempting to answer the same question, just one that looks similar.
While doing your ‘research’, did you happen to look up the difference between ‘most’ and ‘all’?
What? That’s not true at all.
No social creature is born “morally” empty outside of mental illnesses like sociopathy.
Our ability to instantly recognize and relate to anything human-like is very much intrinsic to our neural biology.
They didn’t say they were born empty, they were shaped by their environment
Pretty sure he was implying people were born empty and are only given morals by their environment.
The stuff about being selfish and self-centered is exaggerated as well. Humans are social creatures that naturally group up to survive; if we didn’t have a baseline inclination towards team work we would have died out long ago.
It would depend on if the demon species in question possesses mirror neurons. Without them, you cannot physically empathize and place yourself into the position of someone else. Not all animals on Earth have them, let alone extraterrestrials. Succubi clearly do, or they wouldn’t be able to express care for another.
Even if a demon doesn’t have them, it’s not an excuse to commit xenocide (we don’t use it as an excuse to extinct species here on Earth, even if we’ll use some other, almost always greed related, excuses anyway), as lacking the ability to feel empathy does not mean you lack the intelligence to realize social cooperation is a benefit to yourself (which is how high functioning sociopaths get along just fine society–this is precisely the example of Sherlock Holmes for a good viewpoint on it).
Glad someone mentioned an actual diagnosis name. Let’s talk about the monsters.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Oppositional Defiancy Disorder
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Addiction (specifically addictions like Hoarding)
Borderline Personality Disorder
Munchausen by Proxy
Kleptomania
Not all the people with one or more of these diagnosis are threats to existence. As long as they know what they are, accept it, and curb themselves, they can be extremely helpful and beneficial to a lot of people. They just need to keep themselves as asymptomatic as possible.
Like someone with BPD could be a really amazing nurse or lawyer because they’re incapable of telling the difference between themselves and someone else. Attacking or interfering with the life or health of their client/patient is the same as attacking them directly and intentionally, and they’re pretty good about not letting that continue or go unpunished.
A sociopath hired as your accountant, or personal assistant could be a really good idea. Reason being that they wouldn’t care about your emotional desire to overuse your resources and make sure you’re sustainable and not be phased by your crying, screaming, or puppy dog eyes.
A psychopath hired as your personal bodyguard could be highly useful since they enjoy inflicting pain. If someone were to attack you, they just got the clear and you’ll most likely be safe.
A narcissist hired as a disability advocate for someone really meek and unable to stand up for themselves could advance your life much farther than you could ever do alone.
A hoarder as a friend could be super helpful- as long as you don’t live with them. Most of them want their random crap to be useful to someone and are usually generous about it. Having someone to call on that has that item of rare or specific function could be very beneficial.
These are just some off-the-top-of-my-head examples from theoretical instances I’ve imagined in the past.
“locked” up and used as “furniture” could easily fall under BDSM…
<__>
I think the securities and televangelism is too sadistic for anyone *I* know in that community, so that’s mostly left to our sociopaths
BDSM, is voluntary, even a slave has the right to say, “NO”!
Demons are worse.
she looks so sad and worried at dabs reaction waiting on baited breath hoping for any shred of positive affirmation
Why the hell would all intelligent races be mostly okay people just living their lives?
Succubi are at *best* borderline rapists mindcontrolling people into doing sex things near them. That’s *at best*. (Dabbler is far from the best case scenario) They can’t turn that shit off. Of course they would be treated as monsters – they are. Most interpretations of vampires have the same problem – their base level behaviors and needs require that they break standard human ethics. You can’t just ignore that the vampires are making thralls out of people because they mind controlled the thralls into giving consent.
The demon hunter is completely in the right, with the *only* legitimate argument being that dabbler is powerful enough that working with her does more good than her existence does harm to society.
I’m all for new and interesting races, but if said races are evil, maybe we should hesitate before treating them like just another person.
The problem being, that we don’t know how true that is, and whether or not there are other alternatives. There’s also the fact that Tamatha is, apparently, living a peaceful life without doing anything.
The issue is, that we dont’ know if all Succubi have Dabbler level mind control, we don’t know how all the other demon races live, etc…
As far as we know, there are races of Demons who feed off Happy Feelings, and don’t reduce them by leaving. There’s a difference between “Treating like another person” and “Going out and killing all of them on sight.”
Like, in many fictions, Vampires can feed off blood from blood banks. Or, they might not even HAVE a thrall effect that’s better then hypnotism! (As, in Bram Stoker, the thrall effect was LITERALLY Hypnotism!)
We also don’t know if Dabbler’s thralling effect has a limit…and, let’s be fair…with one notable exception that even SHE was confused on? Nobody has complained. (That being Jabbberwocky…who’s only mad because the thrall effect didn’t fade…)
I was under the impression that the best case for succubi was that they could work as couples therapists and without doing anything rape-y get all the vitamin L they need. Now, even the best couples therapists are unable to have success 100% of the time, and trysts with the failures, while a huge conflict of interest, could make up for any deficit.
It’s my impression that Dabbler mostly seduced her own meals using conventional means and illusions, and only used her mind control for fights and interrogation. That having been said, when she seduces her own meals, she’s potentially interfering with human reproduction. I didn’t have the impression she’s necessarily actually *done* that, but we don’t have enough view into the lives of the Barberian and Jabberwocky to tell for sure.
That’s a very thin “potentially”, even so. Is it any more interference than if the ‘meal’ had gone home with another Human but had made sure to use effective contraception? Of course, we don’t know that every Succubus is as conscientious as Dabbler when it comes to restoring their ‘meal’ to the potential gene pool by blurring the memory of … something.
Yeah? So what’s Hugh Manity’s excuse for all the shit he has done over the years?
In the first place there is no shit “it” has done over the years.
Assigning people involuntarily into groups and then judging people on the behavior of someone they heve been involuntarily tied to is the fundamental sign that bigotry has been fully achieved and that is never done without the impetus of bigotry fully behind it.
Umm, Boer War, World War One, World War Two? Do none of those register or count? And that’s just in the last 150 years (each one introduced a new atrocity)
Yeah, no.
Those were the actions forced upon the world by manipulative rulers. Barely a single one in the trenches, tanks or warships WANTED to murder a bunch of people like them.
Some humans are absolute garbage, and they manage to force the majority to dance to their fiddle. That doesn’t mean the soldier force-conscripted into the army is evil.
Even in tolerant places like the Nordics Succubi would likely end up either taking control or being violently forced out. The only good outcome I could see is the government figuring out the issue early and either forcing them to live in isolation, or otherwise make sure their abilities won’t be used on civilians.
“masterofbones” is right. In most countries Glamour/Mind Control would likely be classified as rape. Likely of the same severity as assault-rape. A creature which cannot disable their Glamour/Mind Control is comparable to an android which demands to walk around downtown despite leaking lethal amounts of radiation.
You… do realise their ‘manipulative rulers’ were also human, right?
What is you secret for a long live? You must have such wonderful stories from experiencing the First World War personally
I think the point there is that treating all humans as if they are co-equal with, say, Hitler simply because Hitler is a human is a gross and inaccurate generalization. That’s like saying all humans are great composers, scientists, painters, and dancers because Amadeus Mozart, Marie Curie, Vincent van Gogh, and Grace Kelly are humans. Or, to use an example I’ve actually heard a number of times, pointing to Muhammad Ali or Kobe Bryant and then saying that Black people are “naturally more athletic.” It’s a stereotype, pure and simple.
The question is, are wars (for instance) part of the common human condition — do humans naturally gravitate to war — or are they symptoms of particular, avoidable situations (rampant greed, zealotry, bigotry, etc.)? The same would apply to demons: is their basic nature destructive/parasitic/evil, or are they capable of functioning in constructive/symbiotic/good ways, but some (or many) have not chosen to do so, for whatever reason(s)?
And, obviously, people are capable of studying history and learning from it without having to have personally witnessed it. The ability to record knowledge and pass it on is a cornerstone of civilization and technology. I know you know that, so it seems silly that you’d suggest not being alive during World War I would negate someone’s analysis of how it started. Some of the elements, like the complex web of mutual defense treaties that, ironically, were intended to deter wars, are easier to see as causative after the fact than they were at the time (if it was easy to see then, they could have been modified or set aside, and the spread of war possibly averted).
Don’t know about RedMattis, butt personally wasn’t treating all humans as if they were co-equal with anyone
The point those three wars was as an example to back up the claim that Hugh Manity has done some serious shit of it’s own against it’s own kind
And that bit about them being well-aged was a jab at their claim that “(b)arely a single one in the trenches, tanks or warships WANTED to murder a bunch of people like them.”
Yes, obviously there were many who felt that way, there were also many who did want to murder a bunch of people like them (and it was usually they felt the ones the were ‘murdering’ weren’t like them, or they wouldn’t have been the enemy)
During both the World Wars, people were being turned away from joining up, they wouldn’t have been volunteering if they didn’t want to ‘murder’ people like them (that only happened during the Vietnam War), not counting the Conscientious Objectors who refused (mostly) due to religious reasons (Jehovah Witnesses) or cowardice
Yeah… the reason people were enlisting is because of societal pressure. If they didn’t enlist willingly, they would be mocked, derided, and called cowards. White feathers were dispensed during WWI to any young male who wasn’t in uniform.
Their original motivation was to serve their country, to defend their nation against what they had been told was a threat. Once they got there, the motivation changed to “stay alive, and keep my comrades alive.” At that point they were stuck – if they tried to leave, they would be shot for desertion.
Honestly, your deliberate and melodramatic condemnation of humanity just screams “edgelord trying to sound like an intellectual.” Pessimism and criticism have always been the standard tools of angsty poseurs wanting to come across as enlightened without making an effort. When in reality, the majority of people ARE decent… which is why societies are even able to function. Societies could not work unless the average person was decent, cooperative, and sociable.
The point was, that Hugh Manity is just as guilty of atrocities as so-called ‘monsters’
And perfectly aware that many more have done some tremendous good
I disagree, with your analis. Yes, Dabbler and Decolleté break standard human ethics, but they don’t need to. Start working as a prostitute, hiring prostiutes or picking up fuckbuddies through dating sites and you can fuck people you didn’t mind control in any sense, since their decision was made too far from your influence and if you introduce monogamy background employee in the porn industry is still an outcome
The same is true for vampires. In most stroies they don’t need to be monsters just to buy blood. Only the vampires who’ve to get their blood directly from a human and can’t do that without turning him/her vampire can’t just buy blood.
There’s been no indication in the comic or from the author, as far as I’m aware, that his succubi are unable to control their abilities. And none of those abilities have thus far been demonstrated to be absolutely irresistible, either. There’s an argument to be made that it’s not fair or ethical to use abilities that most people don’t have the strength to resist, but there are plenty of people with high success rates at seducing others, without supernatural abilities. Is their behavior unethical as well?
“but if said races are evil,” Evil is a relative term, with varied meanings.
Any form of natural, inherent mind control is evil under pretty much any standard of ethics aside from “might makes right” or “forcibly drugging people to make them happy is fine”.
All succubi have mind control powers, some of which are inherent+automatic. Unless they actively work to avoid triggering those abilities, they are evil by all human standards, and are a threat to humanity.
Yeah, except doesn’t mind control people into having sex. And she honestly doesn’t need to all things considered.
Oh dear.
I recognize that bat in panel one.
Been a while since I’ve seen Excalibolg appear anywhere.
Go back to the meeting with SmugD, he had a copy on his wall
To quote him, “Replicas. Yessss.”
Some were real, obviously Dabbles would have ‘the real deal’
And the point, it has been seen in this comic before (which means, any of those other weapons will show up again)
I was going to say, did Sydney really think a race of succubus, that can kill during sex, drink blood, like human flesh, is anything other than…not evil in a general sense, with there being exceptions to the rule? :p
I love D&D’s version of barbaric, insane Demons and courteous, civilized,business-oriented Devils.
I already thought the new outfit looks good on Sydney, but (minus the drunken eyes) she looks really cute here.
Demons are less “corruptive” and more “administrative headache”.
They have a social order based around their needs that, when introduced to our social order, tends to cause disruption. It’s not that they’re good or bad, it’s that they need to put a lot of effort into not making messes or they’re going to make a LOT of messes.
Which is to say that rogue demon hunters are making a poor situation into an awful one. Demons causing problems due to poor social integration is the sort of situation ARC-Light exists to handle in 99% of cases, and ARC-SWAT picks up the remaining 1%.
If Aranea can cool it and listen to reason she’ll find all sorts of kindred spirits and aid in ARC-SWAT. She’d have an adjustment period, but would love it there.
On the other end of the demon spectrum? Tamantha’s just flat-out native, and is effectively human in every way but physiologically.
She was born, raised, and socialized here, and given her physiology that probably would have killed her sooner rather than later if she hadn’t been found by somebody who could mentor her. She’s not going to cause any problems, and Aranea royally screwed up by targeting her.
ARC-Light is the investigative branch of Archon. It’s not, to my knowledge, the diplomatic or social services branch (in fact, I don’t think Archon has branches like that). ARC-Swat is the military/special-tactics/emergency-response branch, and ARC-Dark is the covert operations branch. The Twilight Council is a loosely-allied NGO that coordinates/arbitrates the various non-human communities/species living on Earth and their relations with humanity. So Pixel is arguing that Aranea is either a restrained suspect subject to arrest by ARC-Light, or a person committing extra-legal (as opposed to illegal) acts against a non-human, and therefore a matter for the Twilight Council to deal with. Either way, Dabbler’s status as a civilian consultant working with ARC-Swat’s command structure doesn’t give her the right or authority to question the prisoner, regardless of whether that questioning is verbal or percussive.
Oh the Twilight Council is absolutely a government organization, just not a Human government one.
That’s kinda not my point, though? My point was about the interactions of demons and human societies.
On your topic, though?
ARC-Light is the front line for these sorts of social conflict things. If a demon is causing problems due to cultural differences, that’s going to get ARC-Light involved because they’re going to be investigating the shenanigans. From there ARC-Light can direct them to the appropriate office of the Twilight Council, make an arrest, or call in ARC-SWAT.
It’s not that they’re the social services branch, it’s that they’re going to be the ones investigating this sort of thing and so they’re going to be the ones in position to call in the appropriate agency.
ARC-SWAT is only rarely going to be the initial responding agency for demons because most of the problems aren’t going to be of the “Something is turning people into blood fountains on the corner of 5th and Main” variety.
In this specific case, however? Aranea is a Super who is using her abilities to engage in criminal activity. ARC-SWAT was the initial responding agency, and thus they do have jurisdiction to make the arrest. The Twilight Council has a claim since the victim was under their purview and they were assisting in the operation, but as previously established they lack the capacity and inclination to handle a Super prisoner.
As a result, ARC-SWAT is making the arrest, the prisoner will then be transferred over to ARC-Light for the interrogation *in an appropriate setting*, and the Twilight Council is going to assign an attache for the investigation. I’m pretty sure the Twilight Council actually doesn’t *want* to try to claim ownership of this problem since, aside from previously stated reasons, Tamantha is *very strongly* more aligned with her US Citizenship than she is with her Twilight Council affiliation. The TC definitely doesn’t have primacy over her, and since relations are strained they’re unlikely to attempt to throw their weight around over a new member who doesn’t technically need them.
Both Dabbler and Pixel are wrong here. Dabbler’s motivations are personal and not supported by her position, and while Pixel is correct that ARC-Light will be doing the interrogation and investigation she is incorrect in that they are still in the field and Aranea is officially ARC-SWAT custody until she is in a holding cell and the transfer of custody takes place.
That’s a great argument until Dabbler turns to Hiro and says “Ok, boss. You take her in.”
Because Hiro is arguable the 3rd in command of Archon, which includes Arc Swat and Arc Light. He (I don’t recall Pixel being assigned a rank, but I’d hope that it isn’t Major or higher even in this horribly lopsided organization) probably outranks Pixel, and probably has the authority (and should be required to do so, as the senior person on the scene) to take over the situation.
That’s a lot of ‘arguablys’ and ‘probablys,’ but that’s because the author has left the details of Archons structure and chain of command vague.
Pixel’s a corporal.
Krona, in addition to being Semper Vigilantis holds a Twilight Council seat.
That would most likely rank Hiro in the grand scheme of things. But Krona doesn’t seem to have the pomposity to demand that sort of thing. I think Cindy Lauper had an appropriate song.
I would suggest that Krona went with Maxima earlier in the story because not only was Maxima strong enough to force her to comply, but because she recognized the potential danger had earlier conjectures about the mechanics of her reset Macro turned out to be true.
It was entirely because Maxima threatened and intimidated her. All “earlier conjecture” was in the forums. Maxima just suddenly accused Krona of thought crimes (“you might be able to shatter reality, accidentally or otherwise”) and then arrested her for those imaginary crimes. Completely hypocritical because Maxima herself can destroy the Earth. Perhaps not accidentally, but certainly if she decides to do it. Also completely unjustified.
And then there was the follow-up bullshit where a person with a unique power set is subjected to the analysis by people who have no fucking idea what it is or how it works, and yet supposedly they managed to “get a look at her code” and determine that she isn’t a threat to all of reality anyway. Just utter crap writing.
Contrast this with the attempts to analyze Sydney’s powers, another unique power set that no one has any idea what it is or how it works, which resulted in essentially nothing. Only when the level-up chart appeared could they even speculate, and that they had to admit was entirely guesswork on the order of: “We want you to put your next point here, because we did a lot of guessing with zero facts and no history, but we want you to think that we’re smarter than you and that you should do what we say always.”
Not analysis dip-plunger, Kronachrome was working with Dabbles because, while Dabbles may not know what Kronachrome is playing with (and Kronachrome herself admitted that she didn’t have a clue either), she is one of the smartest (relatively speaking) on hand to help her
The thing with Sydney, is no one was able to figure out her balls: not Dabbles, not Gault and his coven, not even Specs
And Sydney wasn’t told where to put her SP, she was asked to, so they could get further understanding on how it worked
… Wher is Hiro? We can infer he is no longer present, else Dabbler and Corporal Pixel would not be having this argument, even if he was only down in the Club chatting to Decollette.
Hiro is present, unless an unshown time gap has happened, which doesn’t seem likely from the context. No, a Corporal refusing to allow a civilian to take her prisoner is a perfectly fine interaction. Hiro can either support Pixel or not, but just the fact of that interaction doesn’t mean he is no longer there. It’s just happening before he lets everyone know that, as the ranking officer present, he is in charge and he’ll be the one calling the shots.
There’s a running theme here with Dabbler: tendencies are not absolute rules. Most is not the same as all. A species may have natural inclinations towards good or evil, but individuals and societies still have a choice in whether to give in to those inclinations.
Aaaand I always forget how to link: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-760-necessity-is-the-mother-of-space-travel/
Amusing, since this is the news brief in the aftermath of the Fel attack. The Fel, who appear to be treated by all the other species by a set of very absolute rules: Destroy on sight; No attempts at all made to rescue any of the hive; Pitch any artifacts into the sun to avoid further hives forming.
* In the prelude to the Fel attack.
Also, and this can be poetic license or an accurate label, the comic title when the Fel ship appeared was:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-763-its-an-evil-spaceship-not-a-death-dreidel/
The Fel not being a single species but a collective of species infected by a hive mind mentality of madness and violence that seeks only to spread and destroy like a virus and whose artifacts and technology emit the same psycho-later contamination that alters the physical and mental states of any living beings around it to become part of them.
Its not a matter of a single species, its more like an infectious carcinogen.
Unless otherwise revealed, referring to the Fel as “the Fel” and not “those poor people subverted by an evil spell” or whatever is a strong indication that the Fel is indeed a species. One that coverts others, like the Borg, but still a species of its own.
Which is even more reason to try to free the poor people subverted by the Fel, but instead they were treated as acceptable kills who weren’t just non-intelligent canon fodder but who needed to be killed.
pretty sure it was explained when they showed up what they were by Cora; basically space zombies with guns that infect entire worlds.
Also made explicit pointing out the ship its self could turn everyone around if left there into Fel.
That fact doesn’t mean that there are no Fel (members of the Fel species) present. I mean they’re dead, but still present even if in a rather gel-like and/or scorched state.
The Fel are different from the Vinnshasha how exactly?
never heard of them before, and apparently a reference esoteric enough that in a google search your comment right here was the fifth result
There are other infectors/assimilators like the Borg from Star Trek or the Phalanx from marvel comics where its usually too late to save anyone once assimilated, but like any zombie; only fancier.
“Drive” by Dave Kellet. I’m surprised :P
You really should not depend on Google. Its algorithms are not geared to… specialist… research, only for shopiing/trade.
Use Duck Duck Go or Yippy. They actually work.
Bing works just as good (one reason why, personally, won’t use Google as a search engine)
To be fair though: it only had five entries and the fifth one was to this page… (the others were to the “Drive” series, first one to ‘Vinn’, the next to three pages from “Drive”)
Yes, DDG only gives me 5 pages, Yippy gives me 8, but I have not chased them up.
Hmmm, for me Google has as the 1st through 4th results all ones associated with Drive. The 5th is also to this page.
Speaking of, now that we know the origin of the Garthim (I love you, Arathim!) Dave might need to have The Ascendancy say hi.
Except that good and evil are human inventions. I go by ‘harmful to other people without their permission and not harmful to other people without their permission’ myself.
That is why I get uber-angry when someone tries to force their personal morality on me or someone else, even if like with male-male relationships I have a personal distaste and dislike for them.
But no issues with female same sex relationships, I guess? I mean why specify male-male if that isn’t a specific distaste and not the broader “anti-gay” one which theists decry because someone ~2000 years ago was homophobic?
Be… cause he was talking about personal thoughts on the matter
I use “benevolent” and “malevolent”.
I’m wondering if certain ‘demons’ (more aliens) are worse than others. I.E. the Alari and their “Angelic” theme in their actual bodies but being Fascistic nimrods.
So it might be that “Yes, some demonic groups are warmongering savages but that is mainly because like Vengeance, they get a boost from the aura of violence around war and actively seek that out!”
I love Tamatha’s hopeful grin and thumbs-up in panel 5.
I suppose if you live under a puritanical mindset, consider all sex out of wedlock, and independent women to be evil, then yes, to that way of thinking, succubae are inherently “evil” to your standards.
…and you’d be a jackass, but that’s beside the point.
Not wrong, a great number of “demons”, “devils”, “evil spirits”, and even just the imagery of them, mainly hooved feet, horns, and so forth; come from pagan gods, fae, nature spirits, ect… that the Church intentionally wanted to demonify in the minds of the peasantry and the population in general.
Some historical theologeons point out that several “seductive demons” like the Succubus among many others can be traced back to fertility goddesses, sexual practices in worship, and even gods and goddesses of agriculture representing fertile soil and plentiful livestock. So the old man of the woods who helps the trees grow is suddenly a vile evil thing that carries off women; the nymphs are suddenly blood sucking monsters and rape men and women in their sleep or else drown you in pools; ect… they mixed and matched cautionary tales with lesser gods/fae and boom; horny demons representing everything they wanted you to think of as evil.
Some monk had a wet dream, which is explained as Succubi.
they used the succubus as an excuse for that, and coined the term. But most demons and devils and the imagery of them are based on gods and goddesses of things the Church declared as “sinful” such as anything relating to carnal pleasures.
But that said the term “succubus” was overlapped onto pretty much everything of that nature, hell, look up the term now and you see demons, goddesses, nymphs, and anything related to sex or seducing someone and people have labeled them a “type of succubus” same as anything that drinks blood keeps being labeled as a “type of vampire”. When the terms have specific origins.
But that said, the specific mythos of the Succubus/Incubus (that freaky reproductive system) has no real origin and is just as dubious as the majority of stuff written in demonology books; which seem to be one part a pagan god or ritual and nine parts some crap some monk, friar, or whomever made up. Hell, someone once wrote fae are afraid of the color red and crosses and stuff and said sprites are the souls too good for hell but too evil for heaven, and a ton of other stuff clearly not from the actual sources.
Except of course that Succubi existed in ancient mythology centuries before there were monks, or monasteries, or the Christian church.
I do recall they were thought to be the cause of Sleep Paralysis; you know, when you mostly wake up, but can’t seem to move your body yet? People imagined invisible spirits were pinning them down.
It was an age WELL before neurochemistry. We now know the real cause:
Sometimes the brain chemicals that keep you from acting out your dreams when you’re asleep (they’re called metabotropic GABAB and ionotropic GABAA/glycine … but you probably won’t remember that any more than I will. :P ) are still present if you fall out of deep REM too fast. Sleep paralysis usually doesn’t last very long, but it can be alarming if you don’t understand what’s happening.
yea hate that sleep paralyze had that happen and almost panic but then went “oh wait its this this and this fall back to asleep” and woke up normally like my mind went oh first time boot up borked shut down and restart reaction lol
That wasn’t the succubus, that was the Hag, Alp, and Mare *source of Night Mare*.
the Succubus was blamed on exactly what Sasha Whitefur said, wet dreams, nocturnal emissions. The celebate monks couldn’t accept either as a natural thing so blamed demons.
the Incubus was blamed for women having children out of wedlock, their choices were at the time to either blame something supernatural or be persecuted and murdered under accusations of adultery and witchcraft; because the Middle Ages sucked and accusing any man of rape was damned difficult unless another man witnessed it.
Any males witnessing rape, were usually party to it (on one end or the other)
That’s not true either.
The aristocracy committed a lot of rape, and in a court of law a commoner was as likely to be counter accused of some imagined crime and end up in the gaol or the gallows as to bring justice to the victim.
‘Usually’ does not equal ‘always’, there are exceptions to almost every rule (specially if you are rich and slash or powerful, either of which can be taken away at any time)
The things the succubus is based on did, as are a number of entities regarded as “demons” that popular culture likes to label as succubi are. However the term “Succubus” is not ancient.
The term “Succubus” as regarding the demon in question can only be dated back to the late 14th century.
Lilith, Lillim, and Lamashtu among many other “seducers” are not technically the same thing despite what modern culture may claim. You might as well insist any seductive fae, nymph, mermaid, or even things like the Yuki Onna as succubi in that case.
Your beliefs are not objective truth.
But…. Where did the pretty hair go? :( It was le purty.
You mean, the wig? Probably still in the pool of drool
Is Sydney getting drunk or stoned from that anti-toxin provided by Elsbeth???
Probably just looks that way as she comes out of the paralysis.
coming out of it. Ever been put under for surgery, a lot of people act weird while coming out.
The hypocrisy, it burns.
It will be interesting to see the hunter’s reaction when Dabbler points out that she (the hunter) is herself a demon, which Krona and Elspeth will then check and confirm.
not only is self hating (insert whatever) a thing. Its a very popular romanticized trope with the supernatural.
Count how many Dhampir (half vampire) are in fiction, or half-demons. who hunt others of their kind to defend humanity.
Having a relationship with others and defending them does not now and never has necessarily in and of itself proven self hate.
what are you talking about? That has nothing to do with what I wrote or even remotely what the person I responded to said.
So, why did you talk about self hating? o_O
oh for gods sake is this term not common?
“not only is self hating (insert whatever) a thing”
the “insert whatever” is rather important here.
the statement was the hunter herself is a demon. Making her a demon hunter if she’s a demon equivalent to a vampire who hunts vampires.
To not ring around the bush here.
“Self Hating Jew”
is a term for someone who was raised Jewish, identifies as Jewish (follows customs), but is very anti-Semite. They hate all other Jewish people.
You can have people of any ethnicity as well, due to how they are raised hate others of their own ethnicity because of their ethnicity.
This is what I was referring to.
A self hating demon; in other words could be someone who is naturally born a demon; but has grown up to regard all demons as evil beings so hunts them; and may even hate themselves for their own heritage.
you see this more so in half vampire and half demon stories though where they’ve been raised by the human side or only ever see the dark side of their other half so end up hating that side of themselves and hunt their brethren.
We don’t know that the hunter is a Demon.
She could be a super or a cyborg or a Greek mythological creature.
Yes this is true, I was spring boarding off what Schol-R-LEA
said as an If.
If she is a demon, and hunts demons, then pointing this out to her likely wouldn’t change anything, because people are capable of hating the same kind of people they are. Self-hating, as in hating what you were born as and anyone else born that way. Which is common among demon hunters to be half demon or whole demon yet think they are the only “good one” so hunt down all others.
Basically if she is, and she’s a hypocrite, pointing this out rarely if ever changes anything because people like that exist.
We don’t know if Aranea is a demon, she could be a Super who underwent a transformation into her present form and assumed that she had been cursed by demons due to her upbringing.
Indeed. Her multi-armed form could just be a “battle form.” :-D
What if this is a just a “Good Cop Bad Cop” thing? Dabbler trying to scare the demon hunter into talking to one or the other. She seemed a little more violent then normal for her.
I’d agree if this were being done in a secure location after moving their prisoner to a holding area instead of right there on the roof with no knowledge if their prisoner had help who may still be in the area, or could still pose a risk to civilians. At the least they should be waiting for an escort to take away their prisoner.
Dabbles is like this, because Tammy is a succubaby, and one thing Dabbles hates more that prudes, is Demon Hunters (even though she herself has hunted demons… or at least fought them)
Digitigrade … I’m impressed. Podiatrist. Just saying :-)
Okay ignoring the over zelous demon slayer. I must admit I find the tiny succubus cute as a button, not cute as in naughty cute but cute as in I’d always give her a hug and protect her sort of cute. :P
Yes, that’s what the Japanese refer to as “moe” (pronounced “mo-eh”, with a long o and short e). Which, without getting into any kind of in-depth discussion about cultural origins, or how it’s used culturally, it refers to type of cute that inspires protective instincts.
Ah okay so she is a Moe then. :P
Just don’t asked about Lairy or Curlee
Long “well”s are generally good after definitive statements of evil. Like “You will die here!” “Welll…”
“Rats are one of the biggest pests to plague humanity”
HEY THAT’S RACIST. SOME RATS ARE QUITE NICE.
And yet we still have rat traps. Because they are pests.
Rats, like most non-human animals are innocent, many do not know right from wrong. They work on instinct.
A lot of humans work on instinct.
And some work on commission >.>
Some are working on a railroad, all the live-long day.
Some are working on a railroad just to pass the time away.
Can’t you hear the whistle blowing? Rise up so early in the morn.
Can’t you hear the whistle blowing? Dinah, blow your horn.
Or horns, if your species has more than one and they are blowable.
Dabbler :- “Oh, ALL my horns are blowable….”
Demons aren’t rats. Particularly because they’re a sentient and sapient race of beings with a wide variety of… pretty much everything about themselves that we’ve seen so far.
Sydney could have commented, “You’ve been told you have the right remain silent. May I advise you to exercise that right?”
Sydney, is only a not an arresting member yet. She cannot arrest anyone yet.
But she has a damned refined technique for projectile vomiting on their shoes.
And she is coming out of the effects of the drug Aranea gave her.
Karma, baby.
It would have been her big pinkness there, or Dabbler that would have recited her rights to her (off-panel). Sydney listened (not much choice, she could not move).
Tune in tomorrow when Dabbler says…
Well Decolette will probably arrive and Tamatha will be left hanging.
Those really are two lovely pairs of feet in panel 1. But, just as a favor to me, next time we have any succubi or lady demons with their bare feet right in front of the camera, can you switch their glamor on?
Pretty please?